miércoles, agosto 22, 2012

Activists claim the excessive use of chemical sprays were toxic to poorer communities residing near crop farms
Susana Marquez couldn't stop crying
when she heard the sentence in the courtroom in Cordoba. She was hoping
that the men accused of spraying the town of Ituzaingo with
agrochemicals would serve a prison sentence. But that did not happen.

Two
of them were found guilty of environmental contamination and sentenced
to three years probation… The third one was acquitted of all charges.

"Nobody
went to jail. This trial shows that in this country there is only
justice for the rich, for farmers. Nobody cares for the poor", said
Maria Godoy who lives in Ituzaingo, not far away from the provincial
capital.

'They are murderers'

Susana
Marquez has had 15 miscarriages and of the two children she was able to
deliver both were born with heart defects. Only one of them is still
alive. Lourdes is seven years old and blood tests show high levels of
agrochemicals in her system. Susana blames two ranch owners and a pilot
who are currently on trial for spraying her town with pesticides and
herbicides.

"They are murderers how they sprayed the area
indiscriminately. This is no coincidence. I lost 16 babies because [of]
those beasts. And I live in fear because my daughter is sick, we have no
money to pay for the surgery she needs", she told me.

It all
started when the newborn baby of Sofia Gatica, one of the mothers, died
of kidney failure in the same town in 1999. That's when women in this
poor town started to gather information about what was going on. They
realised that cancer rates in their town where at 40 per cent higher
than in other parts of the country. A study carried out in 2010 showed
that 80 per cent of the tested children here had agrochemicals in their
blood.
The ranch that was fumigated by land and air is one street away from many of the houses where people later on got sick.

Argentina
is the world's third-largest soybean exporter and its economy has
become highly dependent on it... Much of that soybean is grown in
Cordoba where farmers use large quantities of agrochemicals like the
glyphosate.

Those behind the lawsuits hoped the trial would put
industry standards on the stand as well. But Government officials say
there is no need for any major policy changes. "I don't think that
Argentina's productive system has to be transformed. What they have to
do is respect the thousand or fifteen hundred meters imposed when there
are people living in the area," said Argentina's Human Rights Secretary,
Andres Fresneda.

In spite of the anger and disappointment in the
courtroom, lawyers insist that the trial was a milestone. "This is
important because it has proved that some types of fumigation are a
crime. This means that from now it won't be a mistake if somebody sprays
a town and people will know that they can go to jail," said one of the
victim's lawyers. He says that the trial will set a precedent as it's
the first time that somebody is sentenced to prison for spraying in a
banned area.

Scientists had hoped the sentence will set an
example in Latin America. "Multinational companies have the complicity
of the state but there is no doubt about the damages involved for human
health of some types of pesticides. We hope that the sentence of the
trial will set a precedent about the consequences of large scale
farming", said Andres Carrasco from the Molecular Embryology Laboratory
of the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. His studies
published in the magazine "Chemical Research in Toxicology" have shown
the damage caused by glyphosate in amphibian embryos even in smaller
amounts than those used in agriculture.

But the lawyers of those
accused insist the illnesses of Ituzaingo are not only related to
agrochemicals. They also claimed they could also be the consequence of
arsenic found in the water and electrical transformers that used to be
placed in the town.

"This trial has been filled with ideologies
between those who are against large scale farming and those who are not.
The mistake is to put on the trial of three people what should be a
national debate about agrochemicals and then reconsider Argentina's
economic model. Those accused where using approved agrochemicals", said
Sebastian Becerra, one of the defence lawyers.
Another trial is
also under way with the same people accused and the same victims were
prosecutors are trying to link the effects of Glyphosate and other
agrochemicals with serious health effects. The outcome could further
impact the types of products used not only in Argentina but also in
countries like Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. This will also question
multinational companies like Monsanto who claim their products are safe.